By the end of the fifth century BC, somewhere on the architecture of the pronaos (the front section) of the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the now-famous maxims of Delphi had been inscribed and were viewable by all who came to the sanctuary. Gnothi sauton—“know thyself”; meden agan—“nothing in excess”; and the less well-known eggua para d’ate—“an oath leads to perdition.”
